


Language of Averted Eyes

by Skywrites01



Category: Mean Girls (2004), Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: Deaf Character, Deaf!Gretchen Wieners, Deaf!Janis Sarkisian, F/F, Internalized Homophobia, Internalized Misogyny, Mean Girls, wlw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24193849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skywrites01/pseuds/Skywrites01
Summary: “Unbelievable,” Regina’s open palm waving in front of her chest.“God, I can’t believe she’s so stupid!” Regina spoke aloud, a shock to Karen. She wanted to translate what Regina was saying, but she didn’t want to hurt Gretchen's feelings and perhaps worse, didn’t want to face Regina's wrath.(Hi! This is my first time writing a Deaf character so I'm still learning. If any Deaf/HoH people have any tips or constructive criticism they want to leave, please do! Thanks so so much for reading my fic, hope you like it <3)
Relationships: Regina George & Karen Smith & Gretchen Wieners
Comments: 7
Kudos: 18





	Language of Averted Eyes

“You are not wearing that to the party!” Regina signed.

Gretchen was devastated. She picked this dress out forever ago and finally had occasion to wear it. It was a sort of emerald sequin dress with an open back. It was a super gorgeous form-fitting dress with a high neckline. Regina’s real problem with the dress was just how flashy it was. Regina was afraid that it’d take the attention away from her. But, it made Gretchen feel great about herself, and she wasn’t really prepared to throw it all away just because Regina said so.

“It’s hideous,” Regina continued. “I can't be seen with you wearing that… thing.”

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal” Gretchen retorted, but her body language was not confident.

“It literally is! Ugh, are you stupid?” After her last words, Regina threw her arms up in the air in frustration. “What is it with you and not listening? Do I need to say it out loud for you to understand?”

Regina sighed, “We are going to be juniors next year, Gretchen.” she stopped. “What about that don’t you understand?”

Karen raised her hands to say something but Regina slapped it away.

“No one asked for your input!” she said, aloud this time.

“Jeez,” Karen muttered.

Gretchen watched in horror. She didn’t need to hear what was being said in order to get what was happening.

“Gretchen, will you please change!” Regina signed. “For me?”

She couldn’t say no to those eyes. It seemed whatever Regina did, Gretchen always came back to her. She didn’t know why. Especially when she was so mean to her. Whatever it was, it worked.

“Fine,” Gretchen agreed.

So that’s what she did. She changed into a blue-gray bodycon dress, a bit more subdued look than the vibrant emerald sequin dress. 

\---

The party itself wasn’t really all it was cracked up to be. Gretchen expected to have the time of her life. It was the first party of the summer between her sophomore and junior year. No longer was she a little fish in a big sea. She was growing into where she was supposed to be. And for what it’s worth, it was a fine party. It wasn’t any different than any other party she’d been to. But it wasn’t special. After a while of having fun, Gretchen just wanted to get out.

After a few drinks, Gretchen started having fun again. But in a totally different way than Regina and Karen probably were. She was in the basement, now. Most everyone down there was too high to function. And if they weren’t they were too busy having faux intellectual discussions, which Gretchen couldn’t join in on, even if she wanted to. But there was this one girl. Gretchen saw her on her phone, presumably on Facetime, signing to someone. She didn’t really care what they were talking about, but when the girl got off the phone, Gretchen rushed over to her.

“Hi!” Gretchen signed to the girl  
“Hello,” the girl was a little hesitant. A good sign to Gretchen, mostly since she hoped that she didn’t know who Gretchen was.  
“Are you Deaf?” Gretchen asked.  
“No, I’m not. But my dad is!” The girl responded  
“Oh, cool!” Gretchen replied. “No one here really signs, so finding someone else who can is like meeting an alien.” her heart was pounding and she was signing at a million miles an hour. This wasn’t something that she’d ever have done sober, and that fact had finally caught up with drunk Gretchen  
“I’m Olivia,” she both signed and spoke. But, in a sloppy drunken mistake, she misspelled her name O-L-I-V-I-S  
“O-L-I-V-I-S” Gretchen repeated, “funny name”  
“I meant A” Olivia chuckled. “O-L-I-V-I-A” She took a beat. “What did you say your name was?”  
Gretchen started finger-spelling her name “G-R-E” but then she thought that she didn’t want Olivia to know who she really was so she quickly finished with “T-A”  
“Greta,” Olivia repeated. “Cool name!” she signed with a “huh!” sound.  
“Thanks!” Gretchen exclaimed “It’s a family name”

Gretchen was sure that Olivia had caught her in the lie. But she just went with it. After that painfully extended amount of horrific small talk was over, all of the sudden a song came on and Gretchen could just feel it in the floor, “lets dance!” she signed

Olivia chuckled and extended out her arm for Gretchen to take her hand, her dominant hand dangling over her open hand, signing dance to Gretchen. Gretchen smiled and took her hand. The song booming throughout the basement, someone must have realized that the mood was starting to fade so they had to turn the music up. Gretchen didn’t really mind, she felt the bass flowing through her body, such an exhilarating feeling. In any other situation, the music probably would have been a little too loud for Olivia, especially considering the environment. But that was at the bottom of her list of concerns. For right now, she could ignore the blisteringly loud speakers blaring trashy pop music because of the pretty girl right in front of her. They looked increasingly out of place, as most everyone in the basement was just ignoring the music in favor of having their own conversations, but Gretchen and Olivia wouldn’t let that ruin their fun. They didn’t even really talk at all the whole time, they just danced. Gretchen got lost in Olivia’s gorgeous dark eyes and she couldn’t look away. The feeling of just being there with Olivia, the bass pulsing through her, her gaze locked. It’s like the rest of the world fell away and the two of them were left there alone, with nothing around them but noise and dead space. The song eventually shifted into something a little less bass heavy, and by then Gretchen had tired out by all the dancing. The two found a spot where they could sit down and relax. 

“That was so much fun” Olivia signed. She’d started to sober up a little bit, so her signing wasn’t anywhere near messy as it was before.  
“I know, right?!” Gretchen responded.  
After a moment of awkward silence, Olivia leaned forward in her seat and kissed Gretchen. Gretchen, at first kissed back, but she quickly pulled back. “I’m sorry” 

Gretchen ran off into the bathroom. ‘What the hell’ she thought. She felt like she was gonna be sick. She’d never done something like that with a girl before. She’d never really thought about a girl in that way before. But something about Olivia was so compelling. Gretchen threw up in the toilet, she sat there for a moment thinking about what could have possibly gone wrong. After a few moments, she left the bathroom and when back upstairs.

After some searching, Gretchen found Regina. She tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she was ready to leave.  
“Leave?” Regina asked. “We just got here a couple of hours ago.”  
“I just… I feel really sick, Gina”  
Regina threw her arms up in frustration. “Fine!” 

Gretchen went out to Regina’s car and waited by it. Her mind was running a million miles an hour and her stomach was doing backflips.

Regina found Karen exactly where she thought she’d be. Karen was at the bar serving shots and being sociable with people in the party. She was definitely having the most fun out of the three of them, until-  
“Come on,” Regina said to Karen.  
“What do you mean?” Karen asked.  
“Your friend feels ‘sick’, so we have to go” Regina rolled her eyes, ‘sick’ in air quotes  
“Is Gretch okay?” Karen began to get worried.  
“She’s fine!” Regina scoffed, “Just come on” Karen didn’t dare to say another word, Regina's eyes were piercing Karen’s soul.


End file.
